A former detective who worked on the original investigation into Cooke told the Sunday Mirror that the minister was among those alleged to have been ­photographed in a 1986 police surveillance on premises where boys had been dropped off.

Others allegedly included Jimmy Savile, MP Cyril Smith and top judges – though none of them were ever arrested. Cooke, 85 – dubbed Britain’s most notorious paedophile after he tortured and killed 14-year-old Jason Swift in 1985 – would pick the unsuspecting teenage boys up off the streets around Kings Cross. He would drive them to locations across North London where paedophiles lay in wait to repeatedly rape them.

Last week the former officer, who worked on Operation Orchid which convicted Cooke and his gang, said they had taken pictures of the minister. The former officer said up to 16 high profile figures were due to be arrested. But the day before they were to be carried out detectives were told the operation had been disbanded. The revelation means Scotland Yard knew about allegations concerning the Cabinet Minister and Savile in 1986 but did nothing about it, instead choosing to cover up the claims. A source told Exaro last week that senior officers, including Commander Peter Spindler, the head of the Paedophile Unit, have had a secret briefing on preparations to arrest the ex-minister.

It is understood that the investigation is at an early stage but there is a plan to arrest him in the next few weeks. After the 1986 operation into Cooke was disbanded the former officer went to check the file – only to find the pictures had disappeared and any mention of the men involved had also vanished. The former officer said: “It was clear a cover-up had taken place.

I’ve found some archive material which may be connected to this paedophile ring and subsequent cover-up in 1986. Geoffrey Dickens was a Conservative MP and a campaigner against child abuse, and in 1983-84 he gave two dossiers to Leon Brittan, who was Home Secretary at the time, containing information about powerful paedophile networks. Leon Brittan failed to investigate either of these files and now the Home Office say they are missing.

From the Times, 14th February 1986: Geoffrey Dickens called on the Home Secretary to prepare a full report on allegations of the existence of child brothels in Islington, North London. Mr Geoffrey Dickens, MP for Littleborough and Saddleworth, said he had given Scotland Yard information. It was now investigating claims that such brothels were being run on an estate in the Archway district, he said. Mr Dickens said: ‘My informant, whose name I shall, of course, keep secret, has told me that some 40 children are involved. ‘He has passed on to Scotland Yard tapes purporting to depict the voices of children clearly taking part in unsavoury activities. Scotland Yard has told me it is treating these allegations seriously. I hope that urgent action will be taken to stamp out this evil trade.’

The Daily Mirror, also on 14th February, reported that three locations were being used involving children as young as 7. The informant was a council tenant.

Now, one explanation would be that Geoffrey Dickens was misinformed. This is possble, but Scotland Yard had already said they were taking the allegations seriously, so there must have been plausible evidence of these activities going on. In my opinion, what is far more likely is that this was part of the cover-up referred to by a former police officer in the Mirror article. We already know that this sort of cover-up is possible from the fact that Elm Guest House only appeared in the newspapers for 10 days, and then never again, with no charges being brought against the VIP paedophiles.

The police oficer quoted in the Mirror says that the 1986 abuse occurred in North London in ‘flats or garages’.

This sounds very much like Geoffrey Dickens allegations of abuse taking place on an Archway council estate. Archway is in the London borough of Islington, North London.

I’m not suggesting for a moment that Jeremy Corbyn MP was complicit in the cover-up. I believe if there was a cover-up it was a professional clean-up which involved removing all evidence from the location and paying off witnesses. It will be interesting to see whether the former police oficer confirms that this did in fact happen on an Archway council estate.

We also know that a paedophile ring was operating in Islington Children’s Homes during the 1980s. We may never know for sure, but if Geoffrey Dickens’ allegations had been taken seriously the trail may well have led back to Islington Council.

I believe that a paedophile ring had started much earlier than the 1980’s. I spent a long time in two Islington children’s homes in the 1970’s, during which time I had the misfortune to come into contact with the notorious Nicholas John Rabet and Bernie Bain to name a few.